Last updated on May 23rd, 2017 at 07:27 am

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Craig Parkin had been a professional driver for over 25 years at the time of his accident in 2015 and had driven heavy goods vehicles on a working daily basis with 6 or 7 different companies since then.

Injury at work as lorries parked too close

On the day of his accident Craig began preparing his lorry and flat bed trailer for a trip to France.   His vehicle was parked, as instructed by yard management, in a line of other vehicles: quite closely such that there was insufficient room to open the driver’s door.   As he stepped down from the lorry, Craig’s right foot landed on an uneven surface and he lost his balance.  He fell to one side and heard his ankle make a snapping noise.  In incredible pain, though thinking he had only sprained his ankle, Craig managed to get to his feet, hobbled to the office and completed an accident report.  He took out his lorry and by the time he returned early that evening, having been unable to pick up his load for France up as he was in the wrong type of vehicle, Craig’s foot had swollen so much that he could not continue further.  He went to hospital where an x-ray showed that he had sustained a ligament injury.

Craig was in pain for some time and decided to pursue a claim for compensation against his then employer (he had moved on at that point) as he felt that the accident was not his fault and was caused by the haulage company.

Injury at work as yard was in poor condition

The condition of the depot yard surface, particularly where the HGV vehicles were parked, was poor; with potholes and uneven surfaces.  Drivers had complained about it, and asked for it to be improved, for a number of years.   They often had to put bricks in the potholes to level up trailers when removing them from the vehicles.

Craig contacted Graysons to see if he was able to claim compensation and we took up the case.  We pursued Craig’s ex-employer alleging it had:

• breached its statutory duty of care owed to Craig according to Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957
• failed to properly assess the depot yard and notice the faults
• failed to maintain and organise the yard to make sure that it was fit for purpose and safe

Liability denied but settlement negotiated

The company denied liability, saying it had carried out re-surfacing work in the month before Craig’s accident (although it had certainly not covered the area where Craig’s truck was parked), and even produced a ‘working at heights policy’ that Craig had never been given.  We issued court proceedings and also obtained a statement from a witness who worked in the yard at around the time of Craig’s accident, who confirmed the poor condition of the surface.  Whilst the company continued to deny liability, we were able to agree a settlement of £2,250 for Craig without the case going to court.

Duty of care

All land occupiers have a duty of care to users of the land, and must ensure that it is safe for those users.  If they don’t and someone has an accident as a result of a breach of that care, they may be able to claim compensation.

If you want to find out if you might have a compensation claim, contact our experts now and we will arrange a free of charge meeting in which we can discuss your case.

You can find out more about making a personal injury claim on our web pages.